B-Classic - Weather

A breathtaking journey through four natural habitats. Each shaped, scarred and transformed by extreme weather events.

In 2022, the classical ensemble Manchester Collective brought Michael Gordon's cult 1997 piece 'Weather' for string orchestra to life, collaborating with sound artist Chris Watson and Spanish filmmaker Carlos Casas on a musical tour-de-force. Belgian string ensemble BRYGGEN will perform Manchester Collective's immersive production.

You’ll be transported from an East Asian rainforest to the world’s oldest desert; from an Icelandic glacier to the sunken medieval town of Dunwich off the English coast… Combining live performance, real-world sound and film, "WEATHER" is an artistic record of threatened environments that is urgent, haunting and unforgettable.

Award-winning field recordist Chris Watson has worked on some of the BBC’s best-loved documentaries, including David Attenborough’s Frozen Planet and The Life of Birds. For this project, Chris has revisited his extensive archive to create an immersive sound installation which accompanies the string orchestra’s hour-long performance:

“During my travels, I have recorded in many habitats around the world that are under threat from climate change, capturing the sounds of places that are disappearing. This project has given me the opportunity to work with these sounds to create an ambient, multi-channel installation that places the audience where my microphones were when I made the original recordings. Every sound you will hear has come from the places I have visited – the voices of those habitats speak to the future generations, who might not be able to experience them for themselves.” Chris Watson

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Weather, introduction

I. The Namib Desert

Extending over 2,000 miles down the Atlantic coast of South West Africa, the Namib desert is an ancient landscape, a vast ocean of sand flowing inland from the Skelton coast to remote interior dunes and bone dry river valleys. This piece suggests a timescale beyond our reckoning. It reflects upon a landscape which has evolved over millions of years – a fragile and hostile environment, now challenged by the recent effects of a changing climate.

The Namib is a place to listen back in time, above and below the surface. The piece reveals the deep rhythm and sound of an evolving sand dune, from individual grains to a moving mountain creeping in advance of the prevailing winds. After dark, the dunes and valleys are patrolled by an emerging alien empire. Insects vibrate and sing into the night air, accompanied by predators cloaked in darkness. At daybreak, the rapid sunrise offers a brief window for a dawn chorus, before the burning sun restores a stillness to the sands.

II. Longshore Drift

There is an erosive wave action which sweeps twice daily down the coast of East Anglia – an unstoppable force that is annually eating its way into the soft landscape. Between high and low water there is a no man’s land serving as a transient feeding space and seasonal refuge for migratory wading birds. Huge flocks take to the air when pushed by the flowing tide. Below the surface, turbulent currents shape-shift the sand and silt. The seabed out here is cloudy and disturbed, a place of ancient memory.

One night in the 13th century a powerful storm washed the thriving port town of Dunwich into the sea. The remains of the town now reside out to sea, and some local fishermen maintain that an oncoming storm is forecast by the sounds of Dunwich’s church bells tolling in the deep – a warning of what is to come.

III. Vatnajökull

The Vatnajökull glacier is the largest in Iceland – a massive river of ice formed between mountains in the remote central uplands. This work suggests a dream journey in the company of ice crystals on their 10,000-year voyage from the summit by Kverkfjöll to finally mixing and merging into the Norwegian Sea.

A deep heartbeat pulse from the depths of a crevasse marks the initial shift, accompanied above by the haunting Aoelian tones of an arctic wind sweeping across the frozen surface. During the long daylight hours of summer, skuas and whimbrel inhabit the margins, eventually joining the arctic terns and grey seals in the coastal lagoon at Jökulsárlón. Here, the ice is returned to the ocean and the ancient pockets of air it has held fast for millennia is released back into the atmosphere.

IV. The Amber Mountain

We regard tropical rainforests as places of beauty and wonder where we sometimes, quite rightly, fear to tread. During the heat of the day, the dense leaf canopy allows only a few strands of direct sunlight to penetrate the forest floor. Down here, we see very little but hear everything.

This piece celebrates a day in the life of the Amber Mountain rainforest in northern Madagascar together with the voices of many endemic insects, birds and amphibians. From sunrise to sunset, there is the daily rhythm and pulse of life punctuated by the storms passing overhead.